Log in

Mabfan's Musings

The Blog of Science Fiction Writer Michael A. Burstein

Two Fiftieth Anniversaries - Kennedy Assassination and Doctor Who

Fifty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

This morning, I woke up in Brookline, Massachusetts, the town where Kennedy was born. gnomi and I took the T to work as usual, but what wasn't usual was Nomi's Boston Globe newspaper. The editors had decided to publish a wraparound cover facsimile of the Globe from November 23, 1963, reporting on the Kennedy assassination. I took two pictures of Nomi reading the paper.

It felt oddly like time travel. Which ties into another anniversary, that of the TV show Doctor Who, which premiered the day after the assassination and is still going strong. For years, I remember reading retrospectives of the broadcast of that first episode, and they almost always noted that enthusiasm for the premiere was dampened by the recent news. After the show went off the air, I never expected was that on this anniversary I would be both living in the town where Kennedy was born and expecting to watch a 50th anniversary special episode of Doctor Who.